Hey everyone! Sorry for the lack of inspiring posts lately...I've been sick...like on my deathbed with a pile of nasty kleenex next to me sick! Worst cold in A LONG TIME! I'm just praying that my family doesn't get it. So the one thing that I have done lately (that's worth blogging about) is my dining table re-do. I did a two toned look with a white bottom and a dark stained top (Miss Mustard Seed would be proud...I hope :) I love how this came out...like LOVE! I don't have a proper before pic because I suck...but here's the glamorous after!!!

I stripped the old stain and about 75 layers of chunky polyeurethane off the top and then worked my way from 80 grit to 220 grit with my trusty palm sander. Then I stained the top 3 times with a mixture of Minwax Dark Ebony and Dark Walnut stain. (the combo of both of those is TO DIE FOR...seriously the best color evah!) I let the stain cure for 2 days then poly coated the top 3 times and the base (which was painted with a creamy white oops paint and distressed) 1 time. I love how she turned out! I'm probably gonna sell her because I really have my heart set on a rectangular dining table that will seat at least 6...but in the meantime she sure is pretty to look at. I hope you all have an amazing Easter!!

Hey there! So my wonderful son decided to yank down a cute bright pink paper lantern that I had hanging above my baby girl's crib the other day (how did he reach it you ask? Well he was IN the crib! I promise...I do watch my children...cough cough) He then decided to play soccer with it. Well its paper and paper is fragile. It lasted all of one kick and it was toast. Well I couldn't leave my baby NOTHING to stare at when she's in her crib and I despised all the plastic and ugly ones at the stores. Plus I wanted something unique with random objects hanging from it. I'm weird...I know. Well I needed a round something or other to hang the random objects from so I headed to Craft Warehouse to look for something. I didn't want an embroidery hoop...I wanted something thinner. I found this random gold ring for 2 bucks..perfect!

So when you're making a mobile there are a couple ways you can go about hanging the stuff from it. You can hang them all from around the outside but I didn't want to do that with mine so I created a dreamcatcher of sorts with jute twine. I wrapped one end around the outside and hot glued it securely

I then just wrapped the twine around and across the ring in a pattern that I liked...if there were any large gaps I just wrapped over them.

Once I had enough jute and I liked the look I just cut the end and glued it down securely. I also put a glob of hot glue under each part of the twine as it wrapped around the ring so it was nice and sturdy.
I had a random mish mosh of objects that I wanted to hang from it. I wanted it to be girly but not generic. I had some pinkish fake hydrangea that I cut pieces off and hung from heavy thread from some of the jute, I also had an iron flower that I got for 50 cents from the craft store, I also bent a purple baby spoon into a circle and hung it, I also made some Faux zinc (check out my tutorial) letters spelling out her name (Lyla) and hung them individually, I also grabbed a twig decorative ball and stuffed it with small fake hydrangeas and hung it. Here's the finished product...

I also took small pieces of the hydrangea and glued them into every criss cross point in the jute so it had some sweet decoration. I love how this turned out! I think Lyla likes it too!

Hey friends! I scored balls of jute garden twine in the dollar bins at Tarjay a couple years ago and I've seriously used it SOO much!! I grabbed about 5 balls of it and I'm just in love with its nubby texture. I used it all the time! I made a jute wrapped vase about a year ago...just like all the tutorials you've all seen on jute wrapped wine bottles and such...but I used an ugly free florist vase. I use that vase CONSTANTLY! Whenever my hubby surprises me with a purty bouquet I plop those suckers in my jute vase. It allows the attention to be on the flowers without looking boring and utilitarian. I just adore it! Well that vase is my bestie and all but I wanted a smaller version for some of the gorgeous daffodils that are literally COVERING my back yard! I have about 5 varieties that our lovely landlords planted last year...you can be jealous...I won't mind! :) Well I was rinsing out an old jar the other day and it occured to me that the jar was the perfect size for the jute wrapped vase I wanted. So into the dishwasher it went and once it was nice and clean I got to work! Here's what I used...

I loved the shape. Its the 16 oz size if any of you want to recreate this look. Its the perfect size for smaller flowers and it holds a lot of water and the mouth is wide so you can cram A LOT of pretties in there!! I'm not gonna give you all a formal tutorial on this because it is brain dead easy...I mean you could seriously be asleep and make this. I almost dozed off making it. Its THAT boring! But the results are Way worth it! So after you've removed the label and washed it thorougly you want to grab your twine and cut the end so its fresh and not frayed. Coat the bottom couple inches in Mod Podge....put the freshly cut end of your jute on the bottom most part and start wrapping it around the jar layer upon layer horizontally (does that make sense?) You want to spin the bottle not the twine..it'll make it A LOT easier to hold it tight so one layer sits on top of the previous layer...you just keep wrapping and wrapping. Every once in a while hold up the bottle and look at the twine...do you see gaps? Then just push it down a little so those are covered and the layers are tight. Just keep going and going and GOING AND GOING. It'll take freaking forever! You'll feel the wrinkles forming as you concentrate on this dumb vase. Once you have all the vase covered ( I personally left the jar part on top uncovered because I liked the look) apply a thin layer of mod podge all over the jute on the outside. It'll also allow you to smooth down all the little hairs that are poking out of the twine. It also makes it water resistant so you can rinse this out and it won't hurt it. Don't put it through the dishwasher or anything though...be careful it doesn't get too wet. Once you are all done and your mod podge is dry you can load er up! Here's mine...

Love it! Isn't that chicken wire basket adorable? Goodwill for a buck! Gotta love those kinda deals! It makes the perfect spot for cute Ikea napkins (why buy ugly napkins when you can get adorable ones for the same price??) Hope you all like it! I never thought a salsa jar could look this cute!

Hey everyone! I am certifiably obsessed with Anthropology... as is the rest of the world!! I guess that's where they get the excuse to charge so much... Anyways I was perusing their site the other day and came across these

SWOON! I was IN LOVE with them and trying to scheme how I could justify the 18.00 a piece price tag. Ouch! Especially since I wanted to spell out Yummy on my kitchen wall and that would MAJORLY break the bank! So I started researching DIY ways to replicate these and I came across a couple of great tutorials. I modified them to make it a little easier on myself but the premise was very similar. Here is what you will need...
1 unfinished mdf letter of your choice from the craft store (I wanted to try out one letter first to see if I liked the results...I totally did) mine was 2.00 on sale.
Black spray paint or black acrylic craft paint
Metallic acrylic finishing paint in Oyster Pearl
Sponge brush or small paint brush

Ok here's the process...its simple and I mean SIMPLE to create that look. It literally appears before your eyes in all its shiny metal looking goodness!
Step one-paint your letter black with either spray paint or craft paint...wait for it to dry completely
Step two-paint a layer of the pearl paint over the top of the black make sure that it doesn't go on perfectly...make sure there is some variation in the color so it looks as yummy and distressed as Anthro's.
Let dry...and hang on your wall to be loved and adored by your family and friends!

I am seriously so in love and immediately after I finished my letter I ran around the house looking for other things I zinc-ify! I had some garage sale A to Z bookends that were in the garage waiting for me to get around to them so I added my zinc touch to those bad boys using this same process...

Now run...Don't walk to your nearest craft store and pick up the supplies! You will not be sorry!!! :)

Ok so that's the best I could do with a title line....I know I have issues. I promised you all in This post
that I would show you how I kinda hid the tv cords on my mantle. So my hubby and I had an amazing (not so much anymore) idea that we should mount our huge TV over our fireplace. It sounded good...all the cool people are doing it...but it gave us the unsightly dilemma of cords hanging down and then running along the mantle to plug into the dvr, xbox, etc. Well it bugged me for MONTHS before I really tackled a solution to it. I literally tried everything i could think of to hide those suckers. I tried driftwood stacked on top of one another, I tried holly branches at Christmas, I tried gords at Thanksgiving...you get the jist..I tried it all. Nothing really and truly covered them and was tranferable from season to season. Well a couple weeks ago I happened upon a garage sale in my neighborhood and I scored 8 random silver house numbers for a dollar! These things are about 2 bucks a piece and they were in amazing shape. I had no idea what to do with them but I knew I had to use them somewhere. Well the other day my lovely sister in law...check out her blog here came over to help me redo the vignette's that I had on my shelves. I'm NOT talented in that dept AT ALL. She is the shelf queen! She could take rocks, dirty diapers, and duct tape and make a cute vignette. Well that might be a slightly gross stretch but you get the idea. As we were finishing the shelves I asked for her help on covering the cords. she was stumped too. Then she said, hmm I wish we had something to just kinda lean against them to cover them...like some wood or something that was cute. DING DING DING...lightbulb moment! I had TONS of old pallet boards in my garage. So a couple rusty and crusty old pallet boards...meet your shiny silver adornments! We screwed the numbers on in a random and slightly haphazard (my fave) manner and BAM! The cords are not quite all the way covered but its SO much better and I love the modern and slightly rustic flair that it gives the room. Plus you can leave it up throughout the year and it looks good! Check it out!

Before = Nastiness

After=Oooh la la

So you can still kinda see the cords a teeny bit...but I can live with that. Were renters and this is about as good as we can get and still have our TV mounted up there. So there ya have it...my practically free solution to the cord dilemma!